January Quiet Blooms

what we need

is here. And we pray, not

for new earth or heaven, but to be

quiet in heart, and in eye,

clear. What we need is here.

Wendell Barry

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Hello Friend,

Are you up for a quiet chat? I’ve just baked some lemon cupcakes, and the tea, Crème Caramel Rooibos, is ready. It’s a luscious combination, as you’ll see.

Come on in.

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I’ve been quiet for a while, here at Scraps of Joy. I told a friend recently that I’ve discovered I like to disappear in January. I used to think it was because I needed the down time after the busyness of the Christmas season. But this past Christmas was abnormally subdued, and still I seemed to need to disappear in January. 

What I’ve learned since then is it’s not so much disappearing as it is looking for quiet.

I know, in these times it seems we have nothing BUT quiet – stuck in our homes, unable to gather with friends and loved ones. New restrictions and lockdowns every day, it seems.

But I mean the quiet of no outside voices – the voices blaring at us from news stations, and social media. Even good old fashioned newspapers. 

And the quiet of no warring voices inside our heads either. The ones telling us about deadlines and all the lists and things we need to accomplish. To “keep up.”

Keep up with the news. Keep up with the latest trends. Keep up with the Jones’s.

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Quiet is an invitation to discover a lasting and internal abundance that we, in our hurry and distraction didn’t even realize was there.

Sarah Clarkson

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I feel like I was allowed a luxury, to take the entire month of January to become quiet, to be introspective, to ponder the question,

How is it with my soul?

Following an exercise my sister-in-law sent me, I started by thinking about all the things from 2020 that I was grieving. It was a surprising list. Surprising in that the list was so long. I’d had no idea I was walking through my days on these bruises and losses. And it took a week or two to work through them.

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The next step in the exercise was thanking. Making a list of things I’m thankful for was easy for me, I’m generally a thankful person.

The last step was entrusting: looking at the uncertain year ahead, all the things out of my control, and entrusting them to God, who knows the beginning from the end. It’s hard, isn’t it, to admit to ourselves all the things that are outside our control? We seem to have an inherent need to be in control of what concerns our lives.

There is so much hype in our current world to take charge of one’s life, point it in the direction you want it to go, and march ahead, conquering all obstacles in the way.

And often, it’s the obstacles that are out of our control, isn’t it? I wonder what would happen if we started treating these obstacles less as annoyances or interruptions to trample over one by one, and more as opportunities to notice and welcome as part of our journey.

I’ve found that entrusting what I can’t control, as well as what I think I do control, is what brings me peace.

And just like that, my January quiet has brought me to February peace.

Thanks for stopping in today. I look forward to our next Tea Time. Stay safe out there, and see you next time.

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Feature Image by Olga Krikliva from Pixabay